


Split Up

by DelanaKiger



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 10:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19809982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DelanaKiger/pseuds/DelanaKiger
Summary: A prince dies and splits into two people, a soul and a body. The soul wakes up with no memories and wonders who the body is.A.K.A. Another fanfic about Snatcher and Moonjumper's origins with my own (hopefully) unique take on it.------------------------------------------------------------------I am an aspiring writer, so any and all constructive feedback is greatly appreciated! Even if it's something small, like a grammar mistake, I can never learn too much about how to do my future job properly.





	Split Up

**Author's Note:**

> The main thought consuming my mind while writing this was "This is so wholesome. ^u^"
> 
> Edit: Yet another thing I forgot to mention since the last time I edited these notes! I have a headcanon: If you die and become a ghost, you lose all memories of your past life, but your life does leave behind what I refer to as "instincts". Hobbies, likes/dislikes, and other things that left an emotional impact on you when you were alive will continue to do so to some extent in death. For example, Snatcher is terrified of Vanessa even if he doesn't know why.

The prince, shackled to the wall for at least three weeks, had lost consciousness long ago. He could no longer feel the bite of cold, hunger, or thirst, or even the strange magic flowing from his “girlfriend” that was currently tearing his very being in two.

**_Riiip!_ **

A paper-like noise shot through the room, coming and going as abruptly as an arrow, as the corrupting magic finally finished its work on the prince, throwing his soul out of his body and onto the freezing stone ground. The serpentine creature slowly opened his glowing, yellow eyes. As he gained consciousness, his soft, fluffy mane spiked out with fear.

**_Where am I?_** Who ** _am I?_** What am I ** _?!_** the ghost thought to himself in a panic as he glanced frantically around the room. He froze as he heard breathing besides his own terrified gasps. This breathing was soft, barely audible, as though its owner was hanging onto life by a thread. Oh, gosh, he hadn’t thought the blue-and-red, oddly shaped, vampire-like humanoid chained to the wall had been **_alive_**! But here he was, taking in exhausted breaths, letting them out, and ever so slightly opening and closing his strange-looking eyes.

The ghost paused, unsure of what to do. He had a bad feeling about this whole building, wherever it was. Something in him told him that he **_needed_** **_to_** **_leave_** because if he stayed around for too long, something or someone would find him and cause something bad to happen. Could his nervous instincts possibly be about the creature in front of him? Was that what he had to avoid? Then again, the creature was chained up, and even if it hadn’t been, the slow, laborious way it was breathing implied that it was far too weak to do any significant damage.

**_And if this guy... this_** being ** _... is still alive, then I can’t just leave him here,_** the ghost ordered himself with resignation. No matter how frightening or even malicious this thing was, the ghost would never forgive himself for refusing to even give it a chance to prove its innocence. Still, he had to be careful. What if it really was dangerous? What if it really was a vampire? What if it would suck all the blood out of him until he was nothing more than a noodle-shaped raisin? Wait, did he even have blood? What if— ** _Oh, God,_** it’s looking at me ** _!_**

The other being, its eyes now fully open, stared silently at him. Its expression, however, was not one of malice, more of wonder, of curiosity, even kindness. By the time the snake noticed, he had already backed into the wall, mane fluffed out to the maximum. He lowered himself to the ground, his ghostly tail curled up around the rest of his body. As he shrank back, the other one’s eyes grew all the more sympathetic.

“Please don’t hurt me,” he whispered shakily.

The other creature shook his head with a gentle, compassionate smile. “As long as you don’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you. I promise.” It beamed. “And I **_never_** break a promise.”

The ghost tilted his head, a tiny smile of his own forming. “Really? You promise? That you never break a promise, I mean?”

The other being tried to contain his laughter. “I promise.”

“Well, okay.” The serpentine relaxed somewhat and floated closer, claw scratching his chin in curiosity. “So, who are you? What are you? Why are you all chained up like that?” Suddenly, the humanoid flinched and stiffened after the last question. The ghost’s hands were a blur with how wildly he was waving them as he desperately tried to fix whatever mistake he had made. “I-I’m sorry! Uh, um, y-y-you don’t— Mmm!” He backed away again as the corpse put a hand on his mouth.

“Shh, shh. It’s okay,” he whispered as calmly as possible but still wincing. “Just... keep your voice down, please. I don’t want... **_her_** to hear us. In fact, I think it would be best if we escaped before we continued talking.” The ghost’s trembling subsided as he nodded, though he wondered who this “her” was. “Can you phase through walls?”

The ghost turned to the only wall with a window (presumably, the outside world was beyond this one) and scratched his head. “I don’t know what I can do, to be honest. But I guess it won’t hurt to try... I hope.” He floated towards the wall and hesitantly reached a shaking finger forward, focusing his mind on phasing through. It took a few tries to figure out how to accomplish this task, but he managed to phase even his whole hand through. He grinned and kept reaching through, pulling his arm back, and repeating the process. “Hehe. Hey, this is kinda fun.” He tried it a few more times, now with his entire body. “Whee!”

The duo shared a laugh. “All right, all right. Playtime later, child. For now, we have to **_escape_** ,” he repeated.

“Oh!” The ghost chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry, my bad. What next, Captain?”

The humanoid thought for a moment. “Now, try breaking these shackles on my wrists so I can escape as well.”

“You got it!” The ghost saluted, his confidence skyrocketing after several successful attempts at phasing. He approached his new friend and began to gather purple-and-yellow magic in his claws, aiming for the shackles, but he hesitated. He didn’t know his own strength; how would he know just how much magic to use to shatter the metal without harming his new friend? He raised his claws upwards, now facing the chains themselves rather than the manacles. He fired, the magic consuming a few of the links. A few seconds later, and...

**_Snap!_ **

The corpse collapsed on the ground, and the young ghost immediately rushed to his side, worry filling him until he glanced up and saw his success. He wanted to cheer, but his friend had warned him to be quiet earlier, so he restrained himself.

“You did it,” he rasped softly. They smiled at each other, and the ghost blushed slightly. The corpse stood up to continue the instructions. “Now, before my imprisonment, I read a lot of books about magic and the afterlife. I read that not only can ghosts phase through walls themselves, they can hold on to someone else and exercise a similar magic to bring the other person with them. The last step to our escape is for you to bring both of us through that wall.” He offered his hand. “You have already gained so much experience doing so by yourself; this should be an easy task for you!”

The ghost nodded, determination filling his eyes as he took his friend’s hand. “Ok! Yeah, I think I got this! Let’s go.” He took a deep breath and, hoping he wouldn’t hurt his new mentor in the process, made the leap.

Sure enough, when they opened their eyes, they found themselves in the outside world. They cheered, and the ghost hugged the corpse. “We did it!”

“Well, you did most of the work.” The corpse affectionately ruffled the purple creature’s soft mane. “I merely taught you **_how_** to do it. Now that we can leave, we must do so quickly before V—the **_monster_** catches up to us.” He quickly floated away from the manor, his serpentine friend following.

“So, what now?”

“Well, I... have some responsibilities I must attend to. Farewell, young one. I hope we can meet again soon.” It was several seconds before he stopped and looked back, and when he did, the noodly ghost was still floating after him. “You don’t have to keep following me, you know,” he chuckled, hoping this conversation would not last long; he didn’t want to hurt the child’s feelings, after all. “You’re free now. We both are.”

“O-oh! Yeah, sorry, I know I don’t **_have_** to follow you. It’s just...” He stared at the ground with a timid smile and rubbed his claws together. “The world out there is so big. At least, I’m assuming. I’ve never been out there before, and that’s what scares me. I don’t know what to expect. But you? You sound like you know everything!” He floated closer with a large grin, hoping he wouldn’t be rejected by his mentor.

The corpse rubbed the back of his head with a nervous chuckle. “W-well, I don’t know **_everything_** , young one. I was merely... studious and curious in life, so I learned a lot about the world prior to imprisonment. Back when I was safe and happy,” he added wistfully.

The ghost waved off the correction. “Yeah, so you don’t know everything, big deal. You still know a lot more than I do. Sure, the bar for that is pretty low, but...”

The humanoid sighed, taking on a far more serious expression. He hadn’t wanted to go into detail about this with such an innocent being, but it was clear the child would stick to him like glue unless he told him the truth. The corpse tenderly petted his mane in hopes of lessening the inevitable distress. “Listen to me, dear one. There is a reason why I wish for you to leave me. In life, I was a prince. I was locked in that cell we just escaped by a monster called Vanessa.” She wasn’t his lover. Not anymore. “I don’t know if I was the only one she hurt or not, but I certainly wouldn’t put it past her to target our... **_my_** subjects once I was no longer around to keep them safe. And if her magic could split a person in two and corrupt both to the point where they are no longer recognizable as humans, who knows what she could have done to the rest of the kingdom?” The ghost narrowed his eyes in confusion, unsure of who this person being split into two people was. Another prisoner, most likely. “I need to go and find out what happened to everyone and, more importantly, if there is anything I can do to help, but that’s just it: There is **_no_** **_way_** to predict what she could have done. You were brought into this world as your own entity around five minutes ago, so for all intents and purposes, you are a child.” He ignored the subsequent indignant glare. “I do not wish to subject a child to what could easily be a traumatic sight. Do you understand?”

The ghost hesitated, staring at the ground as he took in everything he had just been told. Finally, with reluctance, he nodded, letting his new friend go.

“I truly wish I could stay with you, but it is time for you to go and make your own path. Goodbye.” They hugged each other tightly before going their separate ways.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a bit weird imagining the Snatcher saying these lines in his own voice. I imagine that, being a ghost, he hasn't aged physically between this and the events of the game, so that means he's saying all these childlike things in Yungtown's grown man voice. XD Ah, well, a little vocal dissonance never killed anyone.
> 
> Edit: Oh, a couple things I forgot!  
> 1\. This isn't canon to any of my other stories unless otherwise stated.  
> 2\. I probably won't continue this, but if enough people show interest, I might do something with it.


End file.
